After Getting Property Appraised The Water Well Dried Up Along With Everyone Else

[JesseFrank]

Happy Holidays, I hope everybody is enjoying eggnog and visiting with their families and friends this Christmas Eve. I was about to list the property at the end of October and than the water well ran dry. Its a community well with five parcels of land, currently all the homes are getting about 9 gallons for 8 homes or 1.25 gallons per minute for each house. Most of the neighbors ran out of water and had to drill deeper to get five to eight gallons per minute(the driller and water professionals think its only a band-aid). One of the commercial growers hired the driller taking almost two weeks to find enough water to get them by. I spoke with the driller, he said they put in four wells going down to twelve hundred plus feet without hitting a major water source. Their getting less than ten gallons a minute on each well(spent almost $500,000 to put the wells in), that's not going to work for our five neighbors because they want out once the water well dries up.


With that said, once the water well dries out the water well party of five properties will probably dissolve according to three of our neighbors who will drill their own wells. How can I valuate a property with two buildings if there is no potable drinking water once the well goes dry in Feb? One of the co-owners think's a 5 percent price reduction will be the key to selling it even though another neighbor dropped his by thirty percent without telling the new buyer our area is going dry. Happy New Years, may 2017 be a blessed year for all!

 

[Michigan CG]

I doubt 5% will cut it.

The neighbor who did not disclose to his buyer that the well is going to dry out WILL get sued for not disclosing. That is a guarantee.

$500,000 to drill four wells 1,200 feet -- holy cow, someone is getting rich on that !

In my area we have a big area where the residents have to use water holding tanks for their drinking water. There are two reasons for this. Some people have wells with very high sulfur content; sulfur water has an awful smell and taste. It also ruins electronics; the life span of a TV is less than five years if the residents use the sulfur water in the home. The second reason is because of rock quarries in the area that are now abandoned and the quarries fill up with water lowering the water table.

Water holding tanks (also known as cisterns) have been common here for over 200 years. They started as rock walls in the basement that held water, typically under 500 gallons and sometimes as little as 200 gallons. They were "open air" and of course not very sanitary. The water holding tanks are now plastic and tend to be about 2,000 gallons although I have seen them as small as 1,000 gallons and up to 3,000 gallons. Some homes have two tanks varying in size.

Many people have them buried in the yard although that is now illegal. Other people have them in sheds although that is not common, I haven't see one of those in a couple years. The most common place for holding tanks is in the basement. A typical family can get by on 2,000 gallons of water a month although they are very aware of water usage and have to be conservative with their usage. I have been to houses where the owners time showers for kids and that don't use the dishwasher often. One guy (he was amusing) said he and his wife conserved water by taking showers together; I am guessing no water is saved by utilizing that technique.

The cost per month for hauled water runs from $75 to about $200 with an average being in the $100 range. If hauled water in your area is not common like it is here I would guess it would be higher (especially seeing the cost of drilling wells there).

As to the effect on the value of your home no one but a VERY local appraiser is going to know. There are appraisers who come to my area from as little as 50 miles away and have no idea what holding tanks are and the difference in value of a home with tanks. I have heard of them calling them illegal, many have turned down assignments because of the holding tanks.

I hope this helps, have a Merry Christmas.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

How can I valuate a property with two buildings if there is no potable drinking water once the well goes dry in Feb?

The solution is to haul water to a holding tank, probably 5,000 gal. You might put a low flow dosing pump IF there is any water, and the topography and geology dictates if recharge of the aquifer. Here a downhole hammer tool rig capable of drilling 1,200' would run under $30,000 completed...And we are drilling limestone and chert.

http://www.rgwater.com/5-solutions-for-a-low-yielding-well.php

 

[glenn walker]

I noticed you are in California ? There are many good articles about small communities in California running out of water .. Go to google ** Last year there was a lot of chat in the LA Times and other papers talking about the effect this was having on small communities in Tulare County where the wells ran dry. The 5% discount your partner estimated is very optimistic because trucking in water in some parts of California is very expensive.

 

[Walter Kirk]

It seems like a cost to cure situation to me. If water can be provided by a public source what is the connection cost? If water must be hauled in how does the market react to that?

 

[JesseFrank]

It seems like a cost to cure situation to me. If water can be provided by a public source what is the connection cost? If water must be hauled in how does the market react to that?

Merry Christmas, is the appraisal of the property valid since it failed to mention any water well issues because the appraiser was selling his house around all the houses that have run out of water. We are at a Stage 4 Water Emergency, the property I live on nobody is willing to cooperate because their furious the property ran out of water and want to liquidate their portion at the Market Price. Is this just a cost of water situation because all of the people living around me enjoyed their "Bass Pond", Horses and growing plants and trees. Since nobody on our property plans on paying for a water well or drilling again because they feel there's no value to add, what's the next logical step? Is the appraisal invalid or does it need to be adjusted with cost basis of bringing in water? I've seen housing tracts get crushed because the City did not hook water up so the houses sat seven years until water was brought to them. In your experience are both qualitative and quantitative parts of the appraisal modestly or dramatically discounted? I am dealing with someone who said "I do not mind taking a 5% discount so I can sell the property" after having one of the most ugly arguments over one appraisal. Its a very complicated property where one of the owners decided to pour so much money in the secondary house they freaked out when we ran out of water. If the property was worth $975,000, how much discounting in your experience will it take to motivate a buyer who will not be able to use the land to its fullest potential? If I was going to spend $800-$1,000k I would want to be able to have land that's not dry, I would want water to have a wonder place to live. What would you pay for a property(assuming you wish to gamble on water) if you had to truck in water for two or more homes? I hope your enjoying Christmas, your kindness to reply is astonishing, bless your hearts!

 

[JesseFrank]

I doubt 5% will cut it.

The neighbor who did not disclose to his buyer that the well is going to dry out WILL get sued for not disclosing. That is a guarantee.

$500,000 to drill four wells 1,200 feet -- holy cow, someone is getting rich on that !

In my area we have a big area where the residents have to use water holding tanks for their drinking water. There are two reasons for this. Some people have wells with very high sulfur content; sulfur water has an awful smell and taste. It also ruins electronics; the life span of a TV is less than five years if the residents use the sulfur water in the home. The second reason is because of rock quarries in the area that are now abandoned and the quarries fill up with water lowering the water table.

Water holding tanks (also known as cisterns) have been common here for over 200 years. They started as rock walls in the basement that held water, typically under 500 gallons and sometimes as little as 200 gallons. They were "open air" and of course not very sanitary. The water holding tanks are now plastic and tend to be about 2,000 gallons although I have seen them as small as 1,000 gallons and up to 3,000 gallons. Some homes have two tanks varying in size.

Many people have them buried in the yard although that is now illegal. Other people have them in sheds although that is not common, I haven't see one of those in a couple years. The most common place for holding tanks is in the basement. A typical family can get by on 2,000 gallons of water a month although they are very aware of water usage and have to be conservative with their usage. I have been to houses where the owners time showers for kids and that don't use the dishwasher often. One guy (he was amusing) said he and his wife conserved water by taking showers together; I am guessing no water is saved by utilizing that technique.

The cost per month for hauled water runs from $75 to about $200 with an average being in the $100 range. If hauled water in your area is not common like it is here I would guess it would be higher (especially seeing the cost of drilling wells there).

As to the effect on the value of your home no one but a VERY local appraiser is going to know. There are appraisers who come to my area from as little as 50 miles away and have no idea what holding tanks are and the difference in value of a home with tanks. I have heard of them calling them illegal, many have turned down assignments because of the holding tanks.

I hope this helps, have a Merry Christmas.

Some of the drillers about twenty miles from us are going down to 3,000 feet hitting ancient water that "has not been touched for 15,000 years" according to hydrologist. The wells are costing $61-$80 per feet(casing included, he said the wells becomes more expensive per foot the deeper you go(price per foot changes from $61 to $80 because he said reinforcement components are needed) and at one point the wait was twelve months for their services if the customer used reputable drillers.



The Orchards I mentioned have pumps down at 1,200 but can go further if the water table drops down more. Personally I am totally frustrated with everything, at one point when we ran out of water for two weeks the while the other owner moved off the property. One Christmas Eve they called me and said "I am willing to take a 5% discount or 10% but want to sell it quickly". If a property with two houses does not have a proven water source is the value based on delivery of water only? Is this a qualitative and quantitative factor, the appraiser who did our home knew all the adjacent properties were running out of water but failed to mention anything.


In your professional experience will the Appraisal have to be redone since the appraiser failed to mention anything even though he knew there were properties all over us that were running out of water and while neighbors trucked in water at $.10 per gallon ($250 min). I did not know if the city where you can buy beach front property for $50,000 because the owner is not allowed access to water because the city is out of water. All our cities are suing each other over the water shortage after the municipalities

 

[JTip]

Some of the drillers about twenty miles from us are going down to 3,000 feet hitting I water that has not been touched for 15,000 years according to hydrologist.

Yikes. I just had a new surface pump installed at my house. They put in a new 'tip thing' at the end of the line (in the ground). They pulled up 45 feet of pipe to get to it.

 

[JesseFrank]

Yikes. I just had a new surface pump installed at my house. They put in a new 'tip thing' at the end of the line (in the ground). They pulled up 45 feet of pipe to get to it.

Merry Christmas to you, glad you only had to go down 45 feet instead of 1,000 or more and hopefully you are only dealing with yourself instead of various people having various ownership percentages.

 

[JesseFrank]

It seems like a cost to cure situation to me. If water can be provided by a public source what is the connection cost? If water must be hauled in how does the market react to that?

Merry Christmas to you, about ten miles from my house we had a developer build eighty single-family dwellings but their source of water dried up before the model home was furnished. Our municipal water agency refused to build a pipeline five miles to service his housing tract. These homes sat from late 1999 until around Summer of 2008 when muni-water finally reached his housing tract. The developer blew up and the bank took over all the houses which were inhabited by homeless(not homeless if their living in these homes?) people. It felt like the housing tract was jinxed because when the water was finally secured the Banking Meltdown hit! The bank that owned these properties got gobbled up by Wells Fargo and the homes sat again until 2011. Honestly I can say I do not belong in this neighborhood, its for doctors and bankers, rich people(not me!). Have you personally seen how the Market responds when individuals try to sell homes without a proven water source?